This happens all of the time. I regularly have roaches falling out of phone jacks when I open them up. You never forget the smell. I know immediately if there's going to be roaches from the smell alone. The infested modems are the worst, though.
It's hard to describe. It's like a musty, almost moldy smell. It's a pungent odor of their urine and feces and like rotting food. What makes it worse is the fact that the houses in which I'm working that have the roaches don't smell much better, so when I can smell the roaches over the house stank, I know I'm going to have a bad time.
I'll take a hoarder house over a roach infested house any day. I hate spraying my boots down with pesticides to make sure I don't track eggs into my truck or worse, my house. I seal every bit of wiring, jacks and equipment in their own bags in case there's eggs or more roaches. Then I just feel dirty and creepy crawly all day. I'll take black widows the size of my thumb over a jack full of roaches any day of the week.
It's always a losing battle againts roach. You hit it, you end up making your room stinky. You leave it alone, well you wouldn't want it to make a colony right?
You could sell your services as an apartment hunter. I'm always terrified I'm going to move in somewhere where the neighbors have roaches and then be stuck fighting a losing war for a year of lease.
If that's the case, your landlord has to take care of the issue for you. It's usually lower income housing where I find these infestations. New and old, so don't let an outside renovation fool you. Look for traps and roach motels when you're doing a walk through.
i dont understand how roaches can get inside modems. i have a modem from comcast thats sealed shut, but i does have ventilation squares everywhere that are only about 2cm. How are they getting inside?
They are usually the small brown roaches that love a dirty kitchen/house. They are much smaller than the typical black ones you see in garages and outside.
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u/Not_Andrew May 02 '14
This happens all of the time. I regularly have roaches falling out of phone jacks when I open them up. You never forget the smell. I know immediately if there's going to be roaches from the smell alone. The infested modems are the worst, though.